All the Arts, All the Time

Theater review: 'Red Noses' at the Ivy Substation

October 9, 2011 | 3:04
pm

The Black Death meets Belle Barth and Monty Python in "Red Noses," which opens the 30th anniversary season at the Actors' Gang with grave lunacy. Peter Barnes' dark comedy about a priest on a mission to pull laughter from destruction receives an austerely droll revival.

First produced in 1985 by the Royal Shakespeare Company as the AIDS epidemic burgeoned, "Red Noses" exudes the irreverence characteristic of Barnes' "The Ruling Class." Set in 1348 France, the narrative follows Father Flote (Jeremie Loncka, beatifically poised), his response to the horror felling one-third of Europe underpinning Barnes' slender premise.

As scavengers and flagellants ferociously negotiate the body count, Father Flote has an epiphany. If ecclesiastic methods cannot heal the masses, joy can lift their spirits, provided by a new order of Christ's clowns.

Everybody's fine work almost camouflages the central flaw: There's as much sanctimony as sass to Barnes' script, which succumbs to repetitive overreach as plague's end brings a return to church oppression and martyrdom. This subtly infects the whole, its humor sometimes over-gentle, its savagery under-disturbing. Still, there's a nobility to "Red Noses' " levity in the face of chaos, and fans of the troupe should catch it.